September 07, 1997|by MYRA YELLIN OUTWATER (A free-lance story for The Morning Call)

"The idea of bringing sculpture to the college all began with Phil Berman," said Cedar Crest College President Dorothy Blaney, sitting in her office, surrounded by the works of Gaston Lachaise. Small graceful sculptures rest on her desk and on the tops of her cabinets. Drawings hang on the walls.

Blaney hopes that the Lachaise Gallery, which on Saturday will be dedicated with the Miller Family Building, will secure a significant place for Cedar Crest within the art world. The president also hopes that Lachaise's "Elevation," an elegant sculpture of an idealized female nude, will be more than a gallery cornerstone.

"There's a lightness and gracefulness about her," said Blaney of Lachaise's 1927 figure, "as well as a sense of the power of woman." She envisions the Cedar Crest campus as a sculpture garden. Her desire is written on the sign by the college's Cedar Crest Boulevard entrance. Under the college's name is "Sculpture Garden."

It was Philip Berman who got Cedar Crest thinking about sculpture. In the early 1980s the Allentown philanthropist gave the college outdoor works by Ernie Shaw, Glenn Zweygardt, Paul Sisko and Joyce Guatemala. For years the works languished on campus, almost unnoticed. Only one, by Israeli Iphraim Peleg, located in front of the Alumnae Hall, and affectionately called "The Three C's," remained in its original place.

In the early 1990s, Blaney took a new look at sculpture. The change began slowly with the arrival of more than 20 white marble nudes and bronzes on loan from Stella Shawzin.

Last fall the school received two monumental Lachaises, "La Montagne" and "Dans la Nuit." These pieces join 45 smaller sculptures and 18 drawings to form the nucleus of the Lachaise Gallery. All the works are lent by the Lachaise Foundation in western Massachusetts.

It was David Finn, a veteran sculpture photographer and Cedar Crest trustee, who coordinated the borrowing of the Lachaises. Later this fall the college will honor the public-relations executive by dedicating the David Finn Sculpture Garden at the Miller Building. The courtyard space may open with lent contemporary European works.

In June the school received two sculptures by Toshiko Takaezu, who is represented in a major show at the American Craft Museum in Manhattan. During a walking tour Kim Sloane, director of galleries for Cedar Crest, paused by Takaezu's large ceramic bell and noted the campus has attracted a number of prominent artists.

In the past few months Sloane has been busy planning how to fill Cedar Crest's exhibition spaces. Over the summer four new areas have been created, giving the college 10 galleries.

"I want our students to bump into art everywhere," said Sloane, a Yale University graduate who has been exhibiting his own works in New York galleries. "I see Lachaise as an educational resource, as a generator of an important series of exhibitions and seminars.

"Lachaise had his feet in two worlds, that of Paris in the 19th century, and that of New York in the 20th century. Trying to make his work accessible and understandable to our students will be a worthwhile challenge."

Sloane has created several intimate exhibitions. Finn's black and white photographs of works by Lachaise and Henry Moore hang in an alcove of the college library. Another alcove hosts a display of pieces by Alvarez Bravo, who just had a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. A small show of paintings by area artist Nolan Benner are in the halls of the Administration Building. Opening Sept. 15 in the Tompkins College Center is a show by sculptor and installation artist Lucy Gans.

"I like to look at art in intimate spaces," said Sloane. "I hope that by creating a series of small exhibitions throughout the campus, students will be able to sit in quiet contemplation." "We hope to show how art complements a liberal arts education and expands the mind," said Blaney, who expects to announce a major spring symposium. "We want to explore the nature of figurative art and the literature and art of the Lachaise period."